Lewis Hamilton has admitted that the mistake he made in qualifying today is a costly one, a study of the sector times for the drivers’ final laps shows that, in fact, it handed pole to his team mate Nico Rosberg.

Hamilton was ahead of Rosberg as the pair started their final laps in Q3. Rosberg had complained on the radio that Hamilton was going too slowly as they approached the final turns before the start/finish line. He was concerned about the chequered flag falling and not getting to start his lap. In the end he crossed the line with 14 metres to spare!

With Hamilton on provisional pole at that point, he could have ensured that Rosberg didn’t get a lap in. After all the team had made the “slight error” as Toto Wolff put it, of sending the cars out too close to the cut off time. “The start of that run was a mess, the cars were bunched up,” the Austrian added. No-one expected that the ranking would change completely and that the final sector would be 4.5 seconds faster than before”

Hamilton made a mistake in the first sector and clocked 31.198s for that sector. Rosberg was still behind him at this point. If you extrapolate the rest of his lap, from what Rosberg achieved in the Mercedes in Sectors 2 and 3, you get a lap time of 1m36.956s, which was faster than Sebastian Vettel’s 1m 37.386s in second place.

“He felt the lap was worse and bailed out,” Mercedes team boss Paddy Lowe said, “Which was unfortunate because there was a lot of time left in sector three.”

A dejected Hamilton said afterwards that he “had no information from the team that the track was going to be 4.5s quicker,” but then added that it was not the team’s fault that the lap was not completed.

So Hamilton would have qualified at least second if he had completed the lap.

But as Hamilton was just ahead of Rosberg, it is likely that he would have held the German behind him for the lap and so Rosberg might not have managed the 1m 35.766s which gave him pole. Either way the mistake handed pole to Rosberg.

This comes on the back of mistakes in Canada and Austria in the final stages of Q3. Rosberg has not been immune to these himself this year, but for Hamilton to do it three races in a row is particularly hard for him to take. This was supposed to be the race were he regrouped and rediscovered the momentum.

He can come through tomorrow and he needs to. A win for Rosberg tomorrow with Hamilton second puts the German 36 points ahead. So Hamilton could win the next five races with Rosberg second and Rosberg would still be on top in the points.

As a Ferrari fan, there is not much for me to look forward to this year and I can only observe the battle between Ham and Ros. I think many people are surprised that Rosberg is so good this year and becoming consistently better than Hamilton. Watching first races, I thought Hamilton will destroy Rosberg, he was very good when things were going his way, but all these mistakes only show that he is lacking the mental strength and consistency. The opposite to Alonso

You can’t fault Nando’s tenaciousness, grit, relentlessness and mental capacity. Not to mention his never give up attitude when he is behind the wheel. How he retains his motivation in a dog’s dinner of a car and a team bogged down in technical mire is amazing.

Unfortunately, this is very true.
You can’t imagine a controversy (Monaco) and a mistake (Canada) getting to Alonso for the following 2-3 races in the same way it seems to have gotten to Hamilton.
It’s a shame that – despite the undoubted speed – it’s becoming increasingly likely that Hamilton’s career is going to be more characterised by unfulfilled potential and an inability to keep his head together over a sustained period of time.

All credit to Rosberg but he isn’t capable of destroying Hamilton in races in the same way that Hamilton did in Malaysia and China. He’s simply approaching races in a far more level-headed and consistent manner. Reliability helps and I’m sure it will still serve to iron out a weekend here and there but, generally speaking, Rosberg’s consistency and approach is far more conducive to winning championships than the emotional, hot-headed and, ultimately error-prone, way Hamilton approaches racing.

Well it’s easy to forget that Hamilton has had two DNF’s that were not his own fault. If they had not happened Hamilton would be leading the championship. That said since Monaco Hamilton has had a run of bad luck, and desperately needs to bring it to an end. Rosberg on the other hand is a bit slower and perhaps not as talented in some areas, but has shown very good consistency, and we all know that consistency wins championships. I still think Hamilton can win this race if things go his way at the start, but he needs to be a bit more level headed and not leave himself open to misfortune.

Oh come on, there’s a lot of hindsight going on here by everyone — especially the teams and pundits. It shocked everyone that the last sector was so much faster on that last lap: 4.5 seconds! Rosberg was as gob-smacked that he took pole as Hamilton was that he dropped back to 6th. Nobody did, or could have, predicted events would turn out as they did.

If someone had written a film script with that scenario truly it would be laughed out of town; it would have been considered so ridiculous.

I agree to a point. Lewis should have finished the lap, he had nothing to lose by doing so. Perhaps he was concerned about binning the car in the wall. Regardless the mantra of racing car drivers is to “push”. If Lewis continued to push, had that eye-of-the-tiger mentality he would have been on pole.

Well I think they are closing on Mercedes a bit, but only on some circuits, and where inclement conditions come to the fore. I don’t think they have the advantage they had at the beginning, but I still think it’s half a second or so, and it’s most evident on circuits where they can put the power down.

There seems to be a lot of people around here dismissing Nico’s abilities as a driver.

Sure Hamilton is making some bad decisions under pressure, but you don’t win GPs or lead the championship at this stage of the season by accident, and Nico’s driving is the reason Hamilton is under all this pressure in the first place.

It’s far from Hamilton v Hamilton, but I agree he sure is helping Nico right now

@ Phil Glass: I totally agree with you mate. I must say, for someone who claims to have more hunger than Rosberg and for someone who practically worships Ayrton Senna (don’t we all? ) and the way he went about his driving, Lewis really isn’t cutting the mustard as far as those two standards are concerned. It’s not secret that I am not a big fan of Nico Rosberg but he is certainly showing more determination and positivity this year than Lewis, hell even Alonso is showing more fight and he’s in that dog of a thing we call… Ferrari?

In fairness he did do Silverstone 6 years ago in the pouring rain, and Monaco that year too, but other than that it isn’t that good. I remember Hungary 2011 which he was on course to win, when there were a few drops, he spun, picked up a penalty, called it for intermediates, and then had to go back onto slicks (an extra 3 pit stops plus a spin only because of a few drops).

I think we shouldn’t count Button out here. Maybe not a win, but if it rains he could be on the podium, as he is well known for his wet-weather driving (Canada comes to mind).

Lewis has put in some incredible wet weather drives,csilverstone 08 comes to mind, over a minute clear of second and lapping multiple seconds per lap faster than anyone else. That is Senna and Schumacher kind of stuff.

He’s just not going to do it. Hamilton I think you’ve blown it, everything should be pole positions and wins with the talent you’ve got, but somehow you are making yourself too much bad luck. Only going to be one championship for you buddy.

It’s only halfway through the season. Plenty of time to turn things around. Especially if the luck for both drivers reverses. Remember how far behind Vettel was from Alonso when he won 2 years ago. To quote Yogi Berra (American baseball icon) “It ain’t over till it’s over.”

For me it was obvious that Lewis intention was to see too that Nico missed crossing the line in time. And I suspect that Nico Aldo sensed this. Remember he was telling the team to speed Lewis up. Therefore I suspect that Nico continued the lap thanks to Lewis mindgames. Hadn’t he Done that and then backed off I suspect that Nico also had backed off. But Nico is so mentally strong and he doesn’t let anything get to him so Lewis has to do something Quick for right now Nico is too strong for him. James, what do you think?

I don’t think he was trying to make Rosberg miss the flag. If he was, he did a bad job of it! He could’ve held behind Perez if he’d wanted, though it likely would’ve meant they all missed the flag (seeing as Perez missed it). Are we sure that Nico said for Lewis to speed up? I heard ‘Perez’ in his radio transmission. They both only passed him at the last corner complex.

It was a BAD miscalculation from Lewis. Always see through the lap in such conditions, there is hardly any downside to doing so (1 more lap of wear? Who cares when it means either P1 or P6?!).

have a look at the lap on the BBC site. rosberg got a tow from hamilton and hamilton pulled off to the left a long way before a left hand bend. why would he have done that if he intended to ruine rosberg’s lap? there were other drivers in front of hamilton trying to creat a long enough a gap in front of them to attempt their flying lap. hamilton will never cheat or try to cheat. he is too good for that.

To be fair to Hamilton, Perez was going too slowly in front with an issue. Mercedes were not planning to send their drivers again in Q3. It was a last minute decision and they sent their drivers too close.

“Starting the lap I was disappointed because I had to go right in Lewis’ gearbox to even make it across the line [in time to start the lap]. There were cars in front of him and he played that very fairly.

“And then Lewis decided to abort his lap and that’s when really my hopes came up because I thought: ‘Wow, OK, even if I’m slower in the first two sectors, I know the last sector is better than last time around so there is a great chance to do a lot better in the last couple of corners.’ ”

So Vettel is smarter than Ricciardo by the same argument? Rosberg, Vettel, Button et al were simply in the position were they had nothing to lose and made huge gains unexpectedly. Hamilton, Ricciardo, Vergne, Kyvat all made the wrong decision but it was a reasonable decision given the data they had.

I think that what Nico says officially and what he thinks privately is two different things. Remember that Mercedes isn’t interested in public war of words, like in Monaco. And that Mercedes talked to them both and made it clear that they don’t want a war of words between their drivers. But I also think that Nico knows exactly how he should behave to get to Lewis maximum.

The only reason rosberg is ahead is because of hamiltons two dnfs… Could easily happen to Robert. Ham will come back tomorrow, hard to see him winning but he was much faster than Nico in Austria, enough to come back and challenge for the win. He needs good luck tomorrow.

In a normal F1 season these mistakes would be killing Hamilton, but the superiority of the W05 is so great that it makes very little difference whether he starts second or eighth on the grid. By the end of lap 2, perhaps even the end of lap 1, he’ll be right behind Rosberg and have the whole race to find a way past.

Hamilton needs to focus else he will loose the championship to Rosberg. He is faster yet he keeps making silly mistakes. Forget the mind games man and let your driving do the talking. Just ensure you don’t crash in the first lap and if you have to come second so be it. There is no guarantee that Rosberg won’t hit problems as the merc has shown recently that it is no longer bullet proof

how do you know he is not focused? he has made all the decisions best for him from the day he decided he wanted to be an f1 driver up until now and will carry on making those decisions. it doesn’t matter what he decides to do, what ever he decides to do is the right decision. if he doesn’t want to focus he has the right not to focus. the sooner you learn that the sooner you can relax.

Come on folks, 6th on the grid is hardly the end of the world!
Also, a lot – a hell of a lot – depends on weather conditions tomorrow. If it’s a rain affected race it will be topsy-turvy to say the least If it is wet, qualifying spots will be largely irrelevant compared to tyre choice and when to switch over tyres (It can be wet at one part of Silverstone, and bone dry at the other end).
And even if it’s bone dry, then Lewis is an overtaking specialist par excellence.
I’ve posted this before, but it’s a long, long season, plenty can happen and probably will. Lewis is having a bit of a barren patch, but what’s that cliche, it’s not how you start, it’s how you (double points) finish!

It’s quite a coincidence that Lewis’ problems in qualifying begun after the disputed qualifying in Monaco.

We can also go back to 2011 when Lewis had a dip in form after a difficult Monaco qualifying and race.

Hopefully, Lewis won’t take as long as he did in 2011 to get back to the straight and narrow path.

To be fair, Lewis has always had a hard time judging inter-changeable conditions and that’s why he has always made the wrong calls either for tyres or hasn’t vetod strategy.

Overall, I can only see positives from today’s performance for not only will Lewis improve on his positions made on the first lap table but now also the fans can look forward to an all out attack drive from Lewis.

Looking forward to a Mansell-esque charge from Lewis!
Could be 1987 Brit GP all over again…………….turbo cars, 2 team-mates have a private battle for the WDC in a dominant chassis, partisan crowd, fuel consumption management…………
The only difference is Lewis doesn’t have a great big moustache and Rosberg Junior isn’t named after the hero of The Battle of the Trafalgar…………..

Why did the team radio encourage lewis to let nico through? Should they have been making that call? No. Why did they make it. This championship turned on an act if dirty play in monaco. Lewis got no support from mercedes at that juncture and before that Mercedes took the step of soliciting Prost to advise rosberg- a driver most versed in playing the politics. Nico lucked out at monaco (qualifying and safety car) and at canada (should have been given a penalty lewis eventually passes and then retired. Lewis screwed up in Austria but still could have won from 9th. And why was he getting hints to slow down on the radio today. Overall I think lewis is a great driver but he does not think for himself enough and he doesn’t manage the team behind him. And when he’s needed support he’s found toto Wolff enjoying him self destruct. You can see lewis has lost trust in the team- the retirements – monaco- and a lack of public support. He’s a confidence guy who needs an arm round his shoulder. The reality is the retirements and a very bad piece of foul play have swung it away from him- he needs to dig deep to turn that around- tomorrow

The team gave Lewis a “if/then” option. If you’re not going to be able to improve on your time, let Nico through. Which I believe was followed shortly after with a front lock up. Hardly a team order mate. Lewis muffed it. It happens… It will be far more exciting watching him come through the field, rather than doing a Seb and running away from the start from pole. Trust me.

Yes Hamilton does not seem to have much luck and does indeed seem to make things difficult for himself. He will have to pull it back in the race, and perhaps because of it may lead to a very exciting one. Of course in F1 as we know anything can happen so let’s wait and see.

What do you think JA think?.
Lulu solo intentions were to scupper Rosberg’s qualifying pole.
His pit wall on the radio felt the need to tell him “If you don’t think you can do a lap, then let Nico go, if you think you can do a lap then carry on as you are”.

Lewis tendency to self sabotage is astonishing. Nico is nowhere close to the teammates Lewis had in Jenson and Alonso, yet he cannot make his superiority work on the track as it should.

Nico, being clearly more limited as a driver, is however doing better following Alonso’s philosophy of “if you can´t be the best in some fields, be at least the second best in all of them”. That’s the secret of Alonso beating whatever is thrown at him. Nico, despite not being at that level, can make it work thanks to the Mercs superiority and Lewis self destructive instincts. Lewis mental fraility is his achilles’ heel. He should be comfortably beating Nico, even with luck not favoring him.

I know and understand National pride when it comes to HAM. I have no problem with that. But HAM outsmarted himself. He needs to forget the mind games , drama and just drive the g** d*** car. The problem I have with him isn’t his driving,. Sick of seeing the slow motion shots of the apprehensive, sad, poor me, dejected, irritated, look at how cool I am,celebrity HAM. Man up and do what you do best, drive the wheels off the car, knock off the mind games and leave the diva attitude at home. Right now he is his own worst enemy. The only difference between Danica and Lewis is he can drive. Which brings me to why I like Kimi, no drama, no excuses, just drive it the best you can. Who cares if theres 40 reporters following you around asking the same questions over and over. Unless Lauda is demanding press releases and is in favor of the drama queen attitude, all he is going to do is make his fans sick of the drama queen persona.
.Starting to appear that the Bulls are back, if Seb can go the distance, I feel he will give ROS all he can handle. Are there any Ferrari’s racing this weekend? Or Williams?

Fair point there, aveli. I just wonder whether Lewis is getting the best advice and management he needs as a formula 1 driver. Answering questions by saying I forgot, don’t remember (which may be his own media strategy) isn’t working for him in my opinion.

I remember the old Lewis in 2007 – humble, likable, quick, mature. A lot more emotion coming out these days, which is fine if it doesn’t end up bothering him.

The ‘no information from the team’ argument doesn’t make any sense. Surely Lewis should have worked out that sector 3 was dry(ish) from his out lap? Or was he paying too much attention to what he saw in his mirrors.

@ Bo Amato that’s the problem with Hamilton too much show and posing. I really question how much he wants to win. Somewhere along the way he has lost the script. He needs to drop all the frills and get back to just racing. He is one of the most talented racers on the grid and is wasting away his talent. I’m a big Lewis Hamilton fan but he deserves all the criticism he’s getting from his detractors.

No ! To be told ” if you think you can go faster take the lap otherwise move out of the way”

Instead of “there is more time in the 3rd sector Go for it”

That is plain stupid. Because how does a driver know the track is drying and cars are making 4.5 sec just in that sector!!. Unless some truly arrogant people tell him..they did for someone but not for him WHY??

James was it more due to track position & timing that the team did not tell Lewis about the 4.5 sec in that last sector? Obviously they had a bit more time with Nico to ascertain this.

It really baffled me at the time Nico was pushing to get past that surely Lewis’s engineers would have known what Nicos engineers did !. .It does not take that long to react if you know there is more time in the lap’& he still was the lead car.

I accept Lewis made the call But I cannot accept the Teams engineers are working in unison because surely with the right communication it would have been more like .”Lewis there is much more time in sector 3-Go for it !” . As opposed to “..you have the pole by 2/10- either have another run or move out the way & let Nico through ” Somethings just not right there and whilst Lewis didnt say it – surely anyone in that position would consider that as a “bum steer”. I still think he can win it from 6th. But Im equally sure if there is another marginal call during the race it will go Nicos way.this seasons results is being “engineered” far more subtly by the team than by their PU. More of this & Im tuning off its turning into a real farce.Meanwhile Ferrari designed another mule with pull rod suspension for the matedor who likes it. When they have the worlds best equestrian gringo in the other saddle..Will they turn the mule into a stallion or will they continue to buck the common sense in 2015- lets hope not.

Vettel wont keep up at Merc pace. Lewis will be a match for the front 3 cars in any conditons. The real question is will Hulkenberg & Riccardo hold him up enough for Nico to get away. Honestly though one more devious smerk by a Merc…& its %#} it

You need to accept that you can’t always blame the team and in this case it was Lewis’ fault, just like you need to accept kimi will inevitably get his ass kicked this year by a superior Fernando. Tough luck.

Interesting compare, because J. Villeneuve also appeared distracted with his lifestyle choices and lack of focus. This is the antithesis of G. Villeneuve who was 110% focused on his racing, gladly slept in the back seat of his road car at the track, and did not give a whit about the “glamour” of F1, such as it was in 1979-1982.

COME ON LEWIS KICK ASS
Hope Vettel cuts Rosberg
Button gets in front holds station giving Lewis time to whizz by Rosberg!!
COME ON HAMS ARGHHHHHHHHH!!!! SHOW THEM WHAT YOU CAN DO IN FRONT OFF THE HOME CROWD

I think Hamilton was right to bail since Rosberg had closed the gap in the first sector of that final run.

He was beginning to hold up Rosberg. The faster driver should be allowed to go through.

Hamilton buckled under the pressure again. The supposedly fastest driver on the grid is beaten once again by his journeyman teammate. Hamilton should be on track for 15 wins this season. Instead he’s getting matched or bettered for pace time and time again.

To me there`s only thing to watch will R destroy H mentally and when. Hamilton got talent but he constantly keeps equaling Rosbergs chances. And he knows this. It feels frustrating to him to deal with this thought because it should not have there in first place.

Equally frustrating it should be for Vettel to sit on the second slot and not been mentioned at all. But this is British grand prix and organizers have to suck as much money out of it as they can. But they didn` t expect Hamilton to suck.

It sure seems that Hamilton hit the only button on wheel he shouldn`t hit – DAMAGE LIMITATION.

Really! What I see from the media is too much what could have been with Hamilton if this or if that. How about we concentrate on what is! I think most are forgetting Hamilton is lucky Ricciardo was told not to bother going out or Hamilton would be another place below.
Sorry but there is more to F1 than Hamilton it’s becoming quite biased and boring IMO.

Guys, mark my word. This arks the end of Hamilton’s championship chances. When we look back, this will be the race that marked the downfall of Hamilton. Rosberg is already a star in Germany, and from now on, Mercedes will be hard pressed to just back Rosberg for the Championship. Hamilton will have to eat his word for the last 4 years when he kept saying Vettel wins were all due to the car, and that his ability is higher than Nico. Oh Lewis!!!!! That’s you you’ll never be champ again!

Yes both the weather and reliability can throw anything up, but people on here should forget that the bulls or any car on the grid can trouble the WO5’S this season in a normal dry race, as the rules stand it is not possible for FERRARI or the bulls to claw back the MGU-H superiority output of the PU106A.
Renault has themselves declared that their PU has reached 100% capability in Canada, and from the look of it Renault sounds like they know that even with what the rules for 2015 allows they will not be able to bridge the gap to the PU106A unless they are allowed some equalisation derogation.

I can’t understand why FOM did not put any image & sound about HAM’s decision. After watching 5 replays of ALO misfortune with rain (After bad decision also). There is no explanation or “right” explanation to justify that kind of “misses” when you know FOR SURE if ALO or VET would be the drivers involved you would have 10 replays & radio messages in LIVE. HAM can save a Management Co with FOM “siilence” colaboration when he failed. Maybe they judged “not interesting” the British Star decision not to fight for Pole (Irony sense)

It was around the second or third race of the year that I made a comment saying how incredible an achievement it was for Vettel to achieve the level of consistency he had last year. In comparison, I mentioned how Hamilton had already made mistakes in quali with a car whose supremacy in the beginning of the year was on a league of its own. Many rushed to deny or demean my comments, defending Hamilton and belittling Vettel.

Now, around 6 or 7 races later, Hamilton seems to be on his own crusade to prove me right. Three quali errors in a row in different tracks show that he’s not been able to keep his consistency for more than 3-4 races in a row. That in itself is not bad, but again it goes to show how far Vettel was when he had a car he was happy with.

When a driver is on a dominant car, his benchmark is his team mate, but also very importantly, if not more, is himself. Looking at both Hamilton and Rosberg this year, both have failed to stay at that outstanding level of consistency Vettel showed last year and Alonso showed in 2012. It does not make any of them look bad by any means, each driver has strong and weak spots, but to me it proves that Vettel is right there with the best.

Hamilton does not have a good team around him to keep him focused and grounded – or if he has he isn’t listening to them. He’s not going to be champion this year currently as Nico is playing him like a concert piano and managing the pressure immensely well.

Hamilton flew himself home on a heli lesson the other day – why the f… Is he taking heli lessons at such a crucial race meeting..?

Ever since Monaco I have had my suspicions, but now this just seems blatant. A couple of errors can easily be explained – even for the best drivers. But recall what happened after Monaco. Lots of “silly” errors from Hamilton. Far too many I think. To me his spin in Austria was done on purpose, as was his running wide, as was his botched last lap yesterday. I’m not normally for conspiracy theories, but there is something going in here which smells. Is there some agreement where Hamilton has a major come back at the end of the season to claim the title? Or is the agreement that Rosberg gets it this year? Mercedes are not in it for the glory of winning – they want to sell more cars, so they needs to generate excitement. I think most people would agree that given all things equal, Hamilton would be walking away with the title by this point and that would be a big turn-off. So Mercedes would not get the exposure. Remember, the sums of money involved are huge. Any “sport” where the figures are huge is open to abuse – see recent events.

I think he took the blame here mindful of all the flak he has been taking.
i would have thought he would have a race engineer with strong enough personality to tell him to keep on the quali lap.
maybe thats the story. he didn’t listen.
hope the race turns out ok for him earlier.